80,000 Hours is hiring!
Help us change the world!
We want to change the world by revolutionising something incredibly important: the way people think about and spend their careers. Our mission is to help talented and dedicated people have the biggest possible positive impact with their careers. This is a big project, and we’re growing fast, so we’re looking for bright and ambitious people to join us. If this sounds like something you’d like to be part of, then apply to work for us!
Convinced already? Skip straight to the role descriptions and application form. Note: Applications are now closed.
Our sister organisation, Giving What We Can, is also recruiting!
The deadline for applications is Friday 16th August. We will accept applications for internships and graduate volunteers on an ongoing basis, but if you’d like us to review your application within the next two months, it needs to be received by this deadline.
If you have any questions at any stage of the process, please contact [email protected]
Why work for 80,000 Hours?
Quick disclaimer: I’ve been working for 80,000 Hours since last October. The below is a summary of all the reasons I’ve found working here awesome, and why I think others would too.
First and foremost, “making the world a better place” is our bottom line and central aim. If you work for 80,000 Hours, you can directly help hundreds of other people have more impact with their careers. We work on this project because we think it’s the best way for us to make a contribution. Developing ways to monitor our own impact is one of our biggest priorities.
But there’s more:
Be part of something incredibly exciting
We want to completely change the way people think about their careers, which we find to be an unbelievably exciting and motivating project.
Do work that’s important, challenging and varied
Everyone wants a job they love, as well as one that makes a difference. Job satisfaction seems to come from work that’s challenging, makes a contribution, and has variety. We find that working on the question of how people can make the most impact with their careers involves seriously interesting work. What’s more, we actively seek to design our roles to max out on these factors.
Work with incredible people
Everyone who works for us is talented, dedicated and ambitious. When I asked people in the office for what they most liked about working here, “great people” came up the most – see our recruitment page for some testimonials.
Meet incredible people
We work closely with academics at the University of Oxford: we share offices with the Future of Humanity Institute and are affiliated with the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, based in the same building. Our careers coaching program is attracting some of the most inspiring and interesting people in the world: we’re currently getting so many requests we have to turn away 80% of them.
Become the most impressive person you can
Helping you to fulfil your potential to make a huge difference is one of the most important things we can do, so we make personal development a priority. We’ll tailor your work so you can develop the skills you want, as well as explicitly setting aside time each week to work on personal development and self improvement.
Find exciting future job opportunities
One of our interns last year spun off the organisation Effective Animal Activism with our help, which has now raised $60,000 in external funding, and we helped another intern to get a Marshall scholarship to study at Oxford. We’re growing an amazing network of people and organisations working on the highest impact opportunities in the world – we’re in contact with some pretty impressive individuals like Nick Bostrom of FHI and Holden Karnofsky of GiveWell.
Live in Oxford
Oxford is a fun, beautiful university town. There’s lots of interesting people to meet, culture, parks, meadows and beautiful buildings. You’ll rarely need to cycle more than 15 minutes to get anywhere.
If you work for us, you’ll also have:
Autonomy
We have a “professional, but autonomous” work culture. We set high standards, but avoid pointless rules. For example, we encourage our employees to set a work routine that works for them and stick to it, but have no strict office hours.
Responsibility
As we’re a new and growing organisation, there’s a lot of opportunity to take on responsibility much earlier than you would in a large corporation. Many of our interns develop management experience by working with volunteers.
Input
We want everyone to have a say in how 80,000 Hours is run. We hold weekly team meetings to give everyone an input, and also run weekly lunchtime sessions on some specific area of what we’re working on to get input and feedback.
It’s also just a ton of fun! The team is very sociable and we do lots of things together besides work: team dinners and weekly Friday pub trips, movie nights, and much more.
Finally, there’s no better place to try and figure out your own career path. I can’t emphasise this one enough – it’s something I’ve found ridiculously valuable. One of the best ways to figure out the answers to your questions is to discuss them with other people who are thinking about the same issues. You’ll be in an environment surrounded by other people who are ambitious about making a difference with the careers, giving you ample opportunity to do this. We give each other constant feedback and advice on future career plans, and also offer formal careers advice to everyone who works with us.
What positions are available?
Graduate volunteers and internships:
We’re looking for talented and enthusiastic people to volunteer with us full-time in Oxford. We run a Graduate Volunteer Scheme for those who want to stay with us for around eight to ten months, and short-term internships, which generally last at least three months. We can often provide accommodation and expenses to ensure that you’re not left out of pocket.
As a Graduate Volunteer or intern, there are lots of different areas to work on, and there’s plenty of flexibility to adjust the role so it plays to your strengths and development aims. We make it our responsibility to ensure your time here allows you to grow as much as possible, as well as just being lots of fun!
We’re looking for hardworking individuals with a strong desire for personal development who are deeply interested in making the world a better place in an effective way.
Interested? For more information about being a Graduate Volunteer or intern at 80,000 Hours, go here. To apply, complete this form.
Note: Applications are now closed.
If you want to really dedicate yourself to the cause, we’ve also got an exciting opportunity to become a core member of the 80,000 Hours team. We’re looking for someone to join us in a full time paid position as a Careers Analyst, helping us in our mission through providing high quality high impact careers guidance. In this role, you will play a key part in growing the organisation as we expand over the coming years.
As with volunteer roles, this role would be highly flexible, and we’d aim to tailor it to your skills, interests and development aims.
Interested? For more information about this role, go here. To apply, complete this form.
Note: Applications are now closed.
Suggest your own role!
We’re aware that there are probably things we need, that we don’t yet know we need! At the moment we’re particularly interested in hearing from people with experience in operations. If there’s any other way in which you think you could help us, we’d also love to hear from you!
Just fill out the application form and tell us about what you’d like to contribute. As CEA is rapidly growing, even if we don’t have anything for you right now, there will likely be more roles available soon – so it’s well worth getting your CV in.
Other positions available
The Centre for Effective Altruism
The Centre for Effective Altruism is the umbrella organisation comprising 80,000 Hours, Giving What We Can and Effective Animal Activism. They are looking for a Research Fellow in Global Prioritisation.
Giving What We Can evaluates global poverty charities and encourages people to give 10% of their income to those that are most cost-effective. They’re looking for a Director of Research, Director of Communications, Director of Community, and also graduate volunteers and interns.
Effective Animal Activism is an online resource and international community for people who want to reduce animal suffering effectively. They’re currently advertising Research Intern and Community Manager Intern positions, both which could turn into a paid role